NO.2.08. All types of ads for sale, exchange, or other options for the transfer of accounts from one user to another violate EULA and are prohibited in all game chats and channels. 2.14. Discussion on, advertising of, or linking to websites, for the purpose of selling gold, credits, promotional codes, leveling services, or game accounts is prohibited.

Why exactly is it illegal? I see that we can't sell our account, but what's the reason behind the rule?

cuts down on botts grinding accounts just to sell them,
cuts down on accounts being stolen then sold,
cuts down on fraudulant sales ( selling account then reporting it stolen so you get it back)
basically just stops loads of breaches of rules and crimes and laws (as stated in post above legal stuff).

Basically most MMO hosting/developing companies "make" it illegal to sell "in game" things for real money, because technically they make everything on your account their "property", you dont "own" any of it, youre just user.

In reality they just dont want you to sell stuff unless they can get their cut.

Also in reality, they have no way of stopping you from selling your account (of course they can ban you from forum, or even terminate your account if they find out), but if you sell your account to, say your friend, there is not a single thing they can do about it.

Ive played some games (Knight Online for example) where you have account/items selling markets (even forums) easily worth well over 100.000$ which the official company has no control over what so ever.

Such as?
I can make a profit of using tools from Caterpillar(the company hat makes the equipment). Does that mean they should confiscate my imaginary salary?

I'm merely curious what this "legal stuff" is, as I have no intentions to sell my account

It's illegal because it's against the T&C's and it is very sensibly against T&C to prevent a group 'levelling' an account for the sole purpose of selling it on.

Otherwise you would have players in no way taking it seriously and botting as much as possible to top tiers and then the rest would be people who bought there way into high tiers competing with and against players who genuinely learnt there way into the higher tiers.

The divide it would create is too big and it would also ruin some of the games you join as the farmers attempt to die asap to enter on another tank and leech some more xp, over and over.

cuts down on botts grinding accounts just to sell them,
cuts down on accounts being stolen then sold,
cuts down on fraudulant sales ( selling account then reporting it stolen so you get it back)
basically just stops loads of breaches of rules and crimes and laws (as stated in post above legal stuff).

Thank you!
I was just curious in exactly what rules you broke by selling your account.

To the mod: Not planning to, just idle curiosity

Zamial, on 08 September 2011 - 12:55 PM, said:

It's illegal because it's against the T&C's and it is very sensibly against T&C to prevent a group 'levelling' an account for the sole purpose of selling it on.

Otherwise you would have players in no way taking it seriously and botting as much as possible to top tiers and then the rest would be people who bought there way into high tiers competing with and against players who genuinely learnt there way into the higher tiers.

The divide it would create is too big and it would also ruin some of the games you join as the farmers attempt to die asap to enter on another tank and leech some more xp, over and over.

I also think you could of worked this out.

I didn't "worked this out" as I had my mind set on the legal side, not banning it to prevent people to use illegal methods to get to max tier as quickly as possible. I was rather thinking on why a person who has played this game for several years and do not find it exciting anymore, couldn't sell his account.

cuts down on botts grinding accounts just to sell them,
cuts down on accounts being stolen then sold,
cuts down on fraudulant sales ( selling account then reporting it stolen so you get it back)
basically just stops loads of breaches of rules and crimes and laws (as stated in post above legal stuff).

In addition:

These restrictions are put into the EULA to protect WGs income. Imagine what could happen if they weren't: you are bored of the game and sell your account with tier 9/10 tanks and a Lowe to someone else. You get some money, WG gets nothing. They lost a player but gained a new one. However, this new player already has an account with high tier tanks unlocked, so he does not have many reasons to buy gold. After all, no xp needs to be converted, no real reason to take premium because the grinds were already done. The account even comes with a Lowe so the credits are sorted as well.

So WG doesn't get anything. But do they lose anything? Yes. If the new player had started from scratch, maybe he would have converted xp, bought premium, maybe even a Lowe or some other premium tank. WG would make money there. So they lose the potential to make some money. And if the average new user spends x euro on the game while leveling, they lose (on average) that x euro every time a new player buys an account on ebay or something.

Basically most MMO hosting/developing companies "make" it illegal to sell "in game" things for real money, because technically they make everything on your account their "property", you dont "own" any of it, youre just user.

In reality they just dont want you to sell stuff unless they can get their cut.

Or they can sell you virtual items themselves and receive 100% of the share... (gold consumables, Löwe, anyone?)

On the other side: be glad that all the virtual items and property is always owned by the gaming company and not by you. Because if it was otherwise. You would have to pay income and value added taxes on all the goods you earn, buy or sell in a game.

On the other side: be glad that all the virtual items and property is always owned by the gaming company and not by you. Because if it was otherwise. You would have to pay income and value added taxes on all the goods you earn, buy or sell in a game.

This! In addition WG would be subject to all kinds of laws applying to only banks etc and would probably become unintentionally illegal in several countries. It's very easy to make a system where you can put money in but as soon as you want to get it out again, it becomes legal mess.

You are not allowed to sell accounts because they all belong to WG. Nearly all on-line gaming companies have the same rules. It is this way to stop players being scammed by people pretending to sell accounts, ie: you sell some one your account but they dont give you the money or you buy account but they send you false login details. If selling of accounts was allowed then the support department would be buried under the burden of trying to sort out who owns what accounts and this could end up in legal actions, which can consume a lot of suppport time and a lot of money. So the easiest and safest option for WG and its players is to disallow the selling of accounts.
I agree with this policy as I have seen quiet stupid situations arising for account selling.
Hope this helps you understand why some rules should not be broken. Don't get burnt!!